In the production of dress shirts and the like, for example, having front pockets formed thereon, it is conventional practice to partially pre-process the parts such that, at the time of placement on and sewing to the shirt front, the part already has the top flap and hem formed thereon and presewn. In this connection, the ply of fabric, sometimes referred to as the pocket part, which is sewn to the shirt front to form the pocket, typically is provided with a folded-over top flap, which is hemmed and sewn across the front of the pocket part to reinforce the upper portion of the pocket. It is frequently desirable to form the top flap of the pocket part in a "V"-shaped contour.
In the automated preprocessing of pocket parts and the like, equipment is known and available for picking parts one at a time from a supply stack and delivering such parts to folding and sewing stations, for pre-forming of the top fold. In general, however, such automated preprocessing equipment is limited to the forming of straight-across hems at the lower edge of the top flap of the pocket, because of the inherent complications involved in both the folding and the sewing of a top flap formed with a shallow V-shaped or otherwise contoured hem. Heretofore, the forming of pockets with V-contoured top flap configuration has relied principally on hand operations, adding significantly to the cost of manufacture.